Month: March 2012

Madonna’s cleavage is just too much for Disney-owned ABC. The network says Madonna’s ads for her Truth or Dare perfume are too racy to run and have insisted that shots of her breasts and behind be covered up. ABC execs ordered producers of the perfume ad to digitally alter offending shots of her body in the 30-second black-and-white ad, which leaked on the Internet yesterday and shows her cavorting in a low-cut corset and fishnet stockings, wearing a cross and singing over a dance beat, “I’m a bad girl.” A source told us: “ABC viewed the ad [and] came back with a list of changes. They say they want her bra digitally made bigger, and to extend higher to cover more of her chest, and her corset longer to cover more of her bottom.

ABC also wants to cut another suggestive scene where Madonna writhes around.” Ironically, Madonna’s team wanted the ads to run during the shows “GCB” and “Scandal.” But even once the requested changes are made, ABC brass think Madonna’s sexy black-and-white ad can only run after 9 p.m. — oddly with the exception of daytime show “The View” (perhaps because its viewers are unshockable). Page Six earlier reported that Madonna’s video for her new song, “Girl Gone Wild,” had to be re-edited after YouTube banned it from open view and slapped it with an “18 years and over” rating because of racy content. A second source confirmed to us, “ABC has requested some changes be made to the content of the Truth or Dare perfume commercial.”

The woman who directed MADONNA in DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN has heaped praise on the pop star for her directorial debut W.E..

Susan Seidelman, who cast Madonna in her third film, admits she was pleasantly surprised by the period film and thought her one-time leading lady did “a really good job”.

The moviemaker tells BlogTalkRadio.com, “I saw W.E. on DVD and I thought she did a really good job. I didn’t know whether I would like it or not. I was pleasantly surprised.

“I don’t think she learned anything from me but she’s certainly been married to directors and she’s been working with good directors so I’m sure she’s learned a lot over the last 30 or so years. She’s somebody who’s always taking on new challenges so it doesn’t surprise me at all that she’s directing.

“What I saw working with her on Desperately Seeking Susan was that she was really determined, very focused on whatever her goal was and was incredibly self-disciplined so it doesn’t surprise me that she would take on all kinds of career challenges.

“At that time you never knew when someone would be a drop in the bucket or when they would last, so the longevity of her career, I certainly couldn’t have anticipated. But her determination and her smartness and her discipline was striking.”

Legendary pop icon Madonna is set to notch up her 5th consecutive #1 album with the recently released ‘M.D.N.A.’ Overall, it will serve as her 8th #1 album altogether.

According to Hitsdailydouble, ‘M.D.N.A.’ is projected to sell 325-350k in the US. Over in the UK, ‘M.D.N.A.’ will debut at #1 on next week’s album chart, serving as her 12th #1 LP there. Such a feat also means she will surpass Elvis Presley‘s record of 11 number ones. Despite very little promo, the album is #1 everywhere, thus cementing Madonna’s 30-year-old status in music. This era has not been an easy ride for Madonna and she’s recieved quite a bit of flack along the way. Her Superbowl performance came under criticism when rapper M.I.A. caused offense by middle fingering the audience on live TV. She was then deemed a bitter old has-been by a chuckload of little monsters for calling Lady Gaga‘s music “reductive”, and lastly, her latest ‘Girl Gone Wild’ visual was semi-banned on Youtube for being too steamy. That of course hasn’t stopped the album from securing decent first week sales. The singer has been preparing for her anticipated world tour in support of the album, so concertgoers will likely see the 53-year-old mother of four continuing to make drug references on stage and doing her trademark palates-dance moves.

Madonna’s new album might not be her best, but it still manages to prove her abilty to shoot down critics in a world of increasing imitators.

“I think not only do we suffer from racism and sexism and things like that, but we also suffer from ageism, that once you reach a certain age you aren’t allowed to be adventurous or sexual. I think that’s rather hideous. A lot of people have said, ‘Oh, it’s so pathetic. I hope she’s not still doing that in 10 years.’ But who cares? What if I am? What—is there a rule? Are you supposed to just die when you’re 40…Why? Life is long.”—Madonna in 1992 at age 34

On MDNA, Madonna’s 12th studio album, she seems to have entered the Wild West—she’s shooting people, telling people to fuck off, a sinning girl gone wild. And she is indeed traversing uncharted territory—a pop star attempting to stay relevant at 53, nearly two decades after she defended herself in the opening quote.

Critics have long gunned for Madonna. And throughout she has proven a champion, pioneering new paradigms for being a pop star—from her theatrical stage shows to her business model to her constant evolution of looks and sounds (now all prerequisites for pop divas). But along the way she has tackled issues much bigger than stardom or herself: from feminism (helping redefine the ’80s/early-’90s model), sexual orientation (co-opting and celebrating homosexuality in her work) and spirituality (rarely have pop songs shared such spiritual ecstasy as “Like a Prayer” and “Ray of Light”).

On MDNA she traverses preconceived notions about age and, in many respects, succeeds. Ever the excellent collaborator, M works a winning formula: tapping rising dance producers (here Martin Solveig and Benny Benassi) and harnessing their sound for a more mainstream pop audience. And for safe measure, she also enlists Ray of Light producer William Orbit.

It becomes clear early in the album that there are some dark demons to exhume. “Gang Bang,” one of her most intriguing, edgy tracks in years, serves up some serious revenge-fantasy drama. “Beautiful Killer” (among the album’s more radio-friendly tracks) ends in a gunshot and gleefully borrows a melody from another M song about killing: “Die Another Day.”

Madonna reserves some serious artillery for both critics and her ex-husband Guy Ritchie—and delivers the confessional goods with the similarly titled “I Don’t Give A” and “I Fucked Up,” two of MDNA’s strongest tracks. Throughout the album, in fact, she goes deep into the divorce—clearly leaving her angry, scared and vulnerable. And the most relatable she’s been in ages.

There’s still some frothy fun to be had here. “Turn Up the Radio” is the album’s most obvious hit (honestly, should’ve been the first single)—classic Madonna updated with some Solveig savvy. “I’m Addicted”—while a trite concept—is adapted into a delicious dance-floor stomper.

In the Madonna oeuvre, MDNA is definitely better than Music, but not her Ray of Light or Like a Prayer best. But you can’t fault someone for continuing to be adventurous, sexual, not giving a fuck and making an album that any primadonna half her age will envy. Leave it to Madonna for setting yet another new pop paradigm and—bang! bang!—once again winning the Wild West.

Madonna made “the biggest mistake of her career” at Ultra Music Festival, says electronic music veteran Paul van Dyk.

Van Dyk told Billboard…

“I don’t think she was thinking much.
The only thing she was probably thinking was, ‘I need to connect with a young crowd,’ and she made the biggest mistake of her career.
Madonna was so stupid to actually call out drug abuse in front of a crowd of 18-year-olds.
This is not what our music is about.
It’s really counterproductive.”

Van Dyk joins Deadmau5 — who had a much-publicized Twitter spat with Madonna — in condemning comments she made while introducing Ultra headliner AVICII on Saturday (March 24) to an all-ages crowd of over 50,000. She praised EDM culture, saying…

“Electronic music has been a part of my life since the beginning of my career.
How many people in this crowd have seen Molly?”

She’s a lot more ironical than a lot of people think, and … she has this dry sense of humor, which sometimes makes her say or do things that are a little bit shocking, which is also the reason why everyone loves her.

Joel probably read the whole thing a bit more first-degree and was a little bit angry, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” he continued. “And about him saying the things that he wants to say, I mean, I’m totally with him on that. No one here is promoting drug use, and maybe it was important to say this. I know Madonna enough to know that she is, like, completely at the opposite of supporting drug use, but it’s a little bit of a chitchat.

It feels so great to be accepted by the pop world. We always wanted to be compared to people like Madonna
SkyBlu
30th March 2012 By Kim Dawson with James Cabooter
LMFAO have made Madonna an honorary band member after landing a support slot on her upcoming tour.

The party rockers will open for the pop queen, 53, at her massive London Hyde Park gig on July 17.

And the duo, who performed with Madonna at America’s Super Bowl show, are stoked.

SkyBlu, 25, told me: “Madonna’s the female LMFAO.

“It feels so great to be accepted by the pop world. We always wanted to be compared to people like Madonna.

“She entertained the world whether it was a movie, her live shows or her records.

“That is what LMFAO do. We aren’t just one song, we are a lifestyle and we are about making people laugh.”

And one long movie is exactly how the Sexy And I Know It stars see their lives. RedFoo, 36, ex- plained: “To us this is all like a movie. We made the soundtrack to our lives. If you love the lifestyle, the humour and the way we dress, then you like our movie.

“It’s a continual movie so when we’re too busy to get involved with other projects we have to explain: ‘We’re like making Avatar over here.’”

Joking aside, the boys really are plotting their very own film rock opera to rival Prince’s Purple Rain.

Redfoo revealed: “For the next album we want to make a movie, our Purple Rain. We talked about it a lot and it feels right now.”

The LA dudes love to party but they’re keen to point out that doesn’t involve illegal substances.

Madonna’s manager Guy Oseary thumbed his nose in response, tweeting back Madonna had already been invited to Piers’ UK show — so Piers extended the ban worldwide.

Piers refused to elaborate on what’s really behind the feud — on his way out of an L.A. supermarket today — telling us, “It’s a private spat.” (Piers also doesn’t return his shopping cart to the cart corral in the parking lot … but that’s another issue.)

Piers added, “Madonna can come on [my] show, but she has to get on bended knee and apologize to me … on TMZ.”

But he probably won’t get his wish — because a source close to Madonna’s management tells TMZ, “Piers is delusional for feuding with Madonna. He isn’t even on Madonna’s radar. The UK invitation speaks for itself.”

One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small. And the pill Madonna wants you to associate with her 12th studio album, MDNA — the imaginary, Ecstasy-like drug that Beverly Hills, 90210 adorably called “Euphoria” — will make you feel just that… until it doesn’t. The comedown is a teeth-gnashing, serotonin-sloughing, damn-the-daylight free-fall. It sucks. So does going through an ugly public divorce, seeing your efforts to build schools in Africa go to shit, and watching pop stars half your age strip-mine your career for inspiration.

Staring down the unique triad of crapitude that’s been her reality since releasing 2008’s Hard Candy and finishing its record-breaking Sticky & Sweet support tour, Madonna kicks off MDNA guzzling from the Fountain of Youth, cooing about how “girls, they just wanna have some fun” over a four-on-the-floor Eurodisco tsunami from Italian electro-house maestro Benny Benassi. For five additional tracks, Madonna twirls around the club with her face in the bottom of a glass, and it’s all good. She bops back to the ’60s, fashioning herself a Nancy Sinatra-esque revenge fantasy on thumper “Gang Bang,” and partying with M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj on bouncy hip-swiveler “Give Me All Your Luvin’.” She channels the gooey pleasure of cranking up the radio and hitting the road on the playful, Martin Solveig-produced “Turn Up the Radio.” She tumbles well past the rabbit hole on swirling synth concoction “I’m Addicted.” And she bobs and weaves over crunchy banger “Some Girls,” helmed by longtime collaborator William Orbit and Robyn’s secret weapon Klas Åhlund.

Then the real dance-floor confessions arrive. MDNA isn’t Madonna’s true breakup album — she did most of her emotional heavy lifting on Hard Candy’s “Miles Away” and “She’s Not Me,” as her relationship with British filmmaker Guy Ritchie fizzled before our eyes. But the second half of this album is far more earnest; and in related news, far less fun. She breaks out her cache of clichés to gush about a new man on “Superstar,” and fills “Love Spent” with painful comparisons between marriage and money. She goes into Evita mode for “Masterpiece,” the orchestrated ballad that appeared in her feature-length directorial debut, W.E. She slips into an “American Life” flashback for “I Don’t Give A,” a breathless bitch-fest about her hectic life, only rescued by another Minaj cameo and some glitchy production work by Solveig.

But if there’s one producer who knows how to pluck Madonna’s heartstrings, it’s Ray of Light’s Orbit. He lifts up this sagging second half with “I’m a Sinner,” a mod, “Beautiful Stranger”-like romp that combines two of Madonna’s most reliable tropes — Catholic guilt and hedonistic glee — and gives her a pretty outlet for her woe on mournful closer “Falling Free.” Singing in a vulnerable, resigned soprano, Madonna sinks into the tune’s soothingly repetitive melody like a warm bath and admits there’s a chink in her armor: “Deep and pure our hearts align / And then I’m free, I’m free of mine.”

Beneath the fishnets and chiseled arms, Madonna is a 53-year-old divorced mother of four, and despite what you think you saw in her “Girl Gone Wild” video, this is the most naked she’s been in years. Love, like club anthems, public opinion, and luck, does cycle through your system like a drug. Whatever Madonna was on has worn off by now, but a star this ferociously focused on what’s next can always pop another.

Often imitated, but rarely bettered,Madonna is the undisputed Queen Of Pop.

Over the course of her 30 year career, Madonna has sold over 300 million records worldwide, clocked up 13 Official Singles Chart Number 1s and 11 Official Albums Chart Number 1s.

On Monday (March, 26) Madonna released her twelfth studio album, MDNA, which is looking set to debut on the Official Albums Chart this Sunday at Number 1. So, to celebrate, the Official Charts Company have compiled a special Top 40 of Madonna’s most downloaded tracks of all time, based entirely on digital sales here in the UK. Check it out below.

Make sure you come back to http://www.officialcharts.com on Sunday at 7PM to see where MDNA charts, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date with all the latest Official Charts news.

Madonna’s 12th studio album, “MDNA,” is on course to easily debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart next week. Industry sources suggest the set could sell between 300,000 to 350,000 copies by the end of the tracking week on Sunday, April 1.

If “MDNA” lands atop the list, it will mark the queen of pop’s eighth No. 1 album and her fifth consecutive studio set to debut in the penthouse. Her last studio album, 2008’s “Hard Candy,” started at No. 1 with 280,000 sold according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The new Billboard 200 chart’s top 10 will be revealed on the morning of Wednesday, April 4.

Madonna’s first No. 1 came on the Billboard 200 chart dated Feb. 9, 1985, when her second album, “Like a Virgin,” began a three-week run at the top.

“MDNA’s” first week will be bolstered by a successful album sales promotion involving Madonna’s upcoming world tour. U.S. customers who bought a concert ticket also had the option of also receiving “MDNA” as part of their purchase. The only sales that will count towards Billboard’s charts are those where the customer opted to receive the album.

SPEAKING OF smoking. I hardly think the overheated “news” that Madonna’s daughter, Lourdes, caught puffing a cig, was the kind of publicity the Big M wanted, on the very day her “MDNA” album was officially released — to mostly excellent reviews, and No.1 on iTunes in 35 countries.

In all the years I’ve known Madonna I’ve never seen her smoke. I’ve never even been in a room with her where anybody else was smoking. Apparently, she indulged back in the day, but that must have been way back. Madonna has used smoking as a “glamorous” prop in movies and videos. Most recently, she was seen taking a drag in her “Girl Gone Wild” video. That one is so over-the-top it’s been banned from MTV, so who’d notice smoking amid the near-naked dancers writhing around? Well, enough people noticed to cause a bit of a ruckus and now Madonna is accused of setting a bad example for “Lola.”

This story was on top of Yahoo’s news page!

Madonna, like all normal parents — and she is, believe it or not — can’t control her children’s every move. Madonna doesn’t care much about what people say about her. But she worries over her children’s health.

Her video banned? Great. Her daughter smoking? No way to make that seem cool.